“Are those cargo pants freaking you out as much as they’re scaring me?”
“It’s like we drove an hour outside of Chicago and he became a different person. This is a bad idea. We should’ve waited for a normal dinner invite. We could lie for the course of a dinner, but a whole fucking sleepover?”
“Come on.” Indy sits up with excitement. “This looks fun.”
“What happened to ‘I’m not big into camping’？”
“This is hardly camping, and I’m always down for some social interaction. Plus, there are no fans around to stare at you like you’re some sort of magical all-powerful being.”
Indy reaches for the door handle, but I click the lock in place before she can get to it. Brown eyes roll with exaggeration when the door refuses to open for her.
Call me old-fashioned, I don’t care, but I have yet and will not let her open her own door.
Rounding the car, I unlock it on the key fob and open the passenger side to find Indy wearing an unimpressed expression. “You’re so weird about that.”
“I’m not weird. You’ve just never had someone take care of you before, so you may as well get used to it.”
I sling both our bags over my shoulder when Ron waves us over. “Welcome! Did you find it all right?”
“We did. Thank you for inviting us.”
I allow Indy to walk ahead of me, but before she takes too many steps, she reaches back to place her hand in mine. It’s small but reassuring, so I wrap mine around hers and hold on in hopes we can pull this off.
“This is so amazing. I had no idea this was out here,” Indy says as Caroline exits her tent.
“Oh, you made it! Ethan and Annie just arrived too,” Caroline bursts. “How was the drive?”
“It was beautiful.”
“Nice to get out of the city, huh?”
“Yeah,” I interrupt, exhaling. “It really is.”
Ethan and Annie come out to greet us and after all the hellos are said, Ron points us in the direction of our cabin. With our bags in tow, I follow Indy up the steps.
“This is…revealing,” she says.
“Remind me not to go outside unless Ron and Caroline have their canvas pulled down. The last thing I need is to see my boss wearing his pajamas and spooning his wife.”
“You think he wears pajamas? He seems more like a bare-ass-naked kind of guy.”
“Jesus, Ind.”
Before I’m fully inside, I’m releasing the cord to the canvas that covers the front of our cabin, giving us a moment of privacy.
Indy stops in the doorway. “Cozy.”
While yes, the inside of the cabin is comfortable and warm, the coziness she’s referring to is the single bed that takes up seventy percent of the room.
“You take the bed. I can sleep on the floor.” I drop my bag on the three feet of floor space I’ll be sleeping on tonight.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Indy plops her duffel bag on the mattress. “I’m going to pile the other side with pillows anyway, you may as well sleep next to me. But don’t worry, Shay, I don’t have cooties.”
Cooties are not what I’m worried about. Indy loves to give me shit that I’m afraid of girls, but the truth is the only woman who has ever truly terrified me is her. Her intelligence, charisma, and sharp little attitude are the most frightening things her, because I’ve never felt as weak as I do when I’m around her.
Indy gets her toiletries organized in the world’s smallest bathroom while I layer up in preparation to eat dinner outside, slipping my wool coat over my hooded sweatshirt.
“Here, let me help you with that,” she insists, situating my hood on the outside of my coat. I turn around to face her as she begins slipping the buttons on my jacket through the holes. “You can work on your bucket list tonight. It would be a good night to work on casually touching in public.”
“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Watch it or I’ll work on my bucket list by kicking your ass out of bed and sleeping alone.”
I bite my lip to hold back my smile while Indy mirrors me.
Tucking my ears into my beanie, I slip Indy’s lavender one over her head. The color looks nice against her blonde hair and brown eyes, but then again, she looks nice in just about anything.
“Let’s go help with dinner before they think we’re in here fucking.”
She raises a brow. “Trust me. If we were fucking, they’d know. I’m not very quiet.”
Instantly, I turn away from her, putting my hands on top of my head, and attempting to keep my blood from flooding south. “Jesus, Blue. Not funny. Are you trying to make me go have dinner next to my GM with a goddamn hard-on in my pants?”
“That’s one way to convince him you’re into me.” She giggles mischievously.
No one needs to be convinced. It’s fairly fucking obvious.
Curiosity laces her tone. “Did it work?”
As I turn around, her eyes immediately drop to my crotch. Her smile falls and I watch that pretty, slender throat of hers move in a deep swallow.
“What do you think? I can’t exactly think about how loud you might be in bed without all the blood rushing straight to my cock.”
“Oh,” she breathes.
I rub my palms over my face. “I’ll be out in a minute. Good god, woman.”
14
INDY
Indy
Daily update—I just want you to know, I saw the outline of your brother’s dick and I very much want to have sex with him. But I’m not going to. Aren’t I such a good friend?
Stevie
If I could have one wish, it’d be that your campsite didn’t have Wi-Fi so I never had to read those words.
Blame your brother for that one too. Only rich people have Wi-Fi while camping.
Gonna go throw my phone against the wall now! Have fun!
I’m sure there’s a blush covering my cheeks as I head down the stairs to dinner, and I’m not embarrassed but I am flustered. He blatantly brought up sex on a night we have to share a bed, and I ran with it.
If we were fucking, they’d know. I’m not very quiet.
What the hell is wrong with me? As if the other night, tangled up on the couch when he rejected me after I hinted that I was ready to move on physically from Alex wasn’t bad enough, here I am, telling him how loud I am in bed.
“Indy.” Annie waves me to the fire that’s roaring in the middle of the campsite. “I’m having a hot toddy. Can I make you one?”
“That sounds great.”
Annie pours from her thermos to a mug before adding some lemon and a cinnamon stick. “I know you’re just pretending,” she whispers for no one else to hear. “But you two look good together.”
I take a sip of my cocktail, warming me from the inside out. “Ryan would look good with just about anybody.”
Annie raises her brows, unimpressed. “Mm-hmm. Whatever you say.”
“Where’s your boyfriend?” Ethan calls out as he stands at the grill with Ron.
“He’s uh…taking care of something.” Subtle. “He’ll be right out.”
“I hope hamburgers sound good tonight.” Ron’s voice drips with pride as he mans the grill with a metal spatula in his hand. “These are going to be a perfect medium-rare.”